How it Could Have Happened (A Possibility)
by aces
Summary: The fifth Doctor finds an old friend...


William Russell was supposed to play the school master the Doctor and Co. stumbled across in "Mawdryn Undead," but he had other commitments (or so I understand; don't quote me on this), so good ol' Nick Courtney, everyone's favorite Brig, got the part instead. But what if Ian and this other Doctor had ever met? Just a nice little story, no biggie, set probably about a year or two after Ian and Barbara got back. Have fun...

How it Could Have Happened (A Possibility)

"Hello," Ian nodded in greeting to a math teacher, smiling charmingly. The other teacher smiled back and walked on. Ian peeked into Barbara's classroom, was disappointed when he didn't see her in there. Then he thought she might have gone to his science lab and brightened, quickly striding down the hall again.

"What the de—" Ian froze in the doorway of his classroom and stared. An absurdly dressed young man was playing around with some test tubes and a Bunsen burner in the far corner of his laboratory.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I couldn't resist," the young man said and looked up, smiling disarmingly. When he saw Ian, his grin widened and he strode across the room to shake Ian's hand. "Ian old chap! How are you?"

Ian gaped at the man who was shaking his hand with a little too much enthusiasm. He looked to be in his late-twenties, maybe early thirties, and he wore a long yellow frock coat with red trimmings and, oddly, a piece of celery on his lapel. A cricket sweater, white shirt with red question marks on the collar, and striped trousers completed the outfit. His long blonde hair reached his collar, and his eyes were bright blue and friendly. A Panama hat was carelessly thrown on the lab table where he'd been experimenting.

"Do I know you?" Ian finally remembered how to speak.

"Of course you do, Chesterton! It's me!" The young cricketer looked disconcerted for a moment, then realization flashed across his face, and he grinned sheepishly. He seemed a very charming gentleman. "Of course you don't recognize me; I've...changed quite a lot since you last saw me."

Ian blinked. "You have?" he answered slowly and waited, managing to snag his hand back from the other man and put it in his trouser pocket.

The young man beamed, his whole face open and cheerful. "I'm the Doctor of course, Ian."

Ian failed to hide his shock. "Impossible!" he finally burst out when he could coherently speak again. "The Doctor is much older than you, with long white hair and--"

"Yes, yes, I was, many centuries ago," the other man interrupted impatiently. "I've regenerated a number of times since you last saw me, Ian, but I assure you, I am the same person."

Ian shook his head and walked further into his classroom, absently turning off the Bunsen burner and washing out the test tubes, not wanting to know what the other man had put in them. "Look, I know the Doctor--wasn't human--but how can you be the same man? You--you're decades younger than he was!"

The possible-Doctor leaned across the table to look Ian directly in the eye. The science teacher paused in his washing-up, a dripping test tube held forgotten over the sink. "I've been many people, Ian. How can I make you believe me?" The young cricketer looked around the lab for inspiration and suddenly said, "Remember how Susan loved listening to that one music group--who were they? John Smith and the Common Men?" He smiled reminiscently. "Oh, how that name has since come back to haunt me..."

Ian stared at the other man, listening closely and not believing what he heard. "She married that David chap, you remember? Hmm…Steven Taylor joined me right after you and Barbara left; did you meet him? Yes, yes, of course you did...They've all left of course." His pale face was shadowed for a moment, his eyes too old for his youthful body, and for an instant Ian could really believe this open young man was the same person as the irascible, brilliant alien Ian had known.

"You really are the Doctor, aren't you?" Ian said without meaning to.

The Doctor grinned. "I'm glad you believe me."

"But what are you doing here?"  
The Doctor shrugged, playing absently with his hat. "Just passing through, really. I should be getting back to my TARDIS soon; Tegan and Turlough are probably wondering where I am..."  
"So you do still have people travelling with you," Ian smiled. He hung up the test tubes on a rack to dry.

"But of course," the Doctor beamed. "If I don't find them, they find me."  
Ian shook his head. "You have changed so much."

The other man sobered, a frown crossing his face like a fast-disappearing cloud on a summer day. "Not all that much." He added after a pause, "How's Barbara?"  
"Oh, fantastic," Ian replied. "Have you heard anything from Vicki lately?"  
They talked over old times for a while, reminiscing. Ian found this young man slightly unsettling; he actually appeared about the same age as Ian, and yet he could talk with aplomb about events that had happened during the French Revolution and when the Aztecs lived in Tenochtitlan. From the old Doctor, talking about witnessing history didn't seem quite so odd; he was an old man with an aura of...agelessness, as if he'd lived forever and seen everything. From this young man, it seemed somehow implausible.

Ian felt saddened. He couldn't really connect this man to his Doctor. "Well, I ought to be going," the Doctor said finally, perhaps sensing Ian's discomfort or not feeling very comfortable himself. "It's a bit awkward, me being here in this particular time period...it was very nice seeing you again, Chesterton." He vigorously shook Ian's hand again and stuck his hat on his head.

"It was...interesting...seeing you again, Doctor," Ian replied with a slight smile.

The youthful Doctor's grin was shadowed by his hat, and he stuck his hands in his trouser pockets casually. "Do you know, I get that a lot from people? Say hello to Barbara for me, won't you? Good-bye, Ian."

The young man left the lab.

A few minutes later Barbara found Ian still standing by the sink, staring off into space. "Ian?" she asked, touching his sleeve. "Is something wrong?"

He refocused on her. "What? Oh...no no," he gave her a brief, embarrassed smile. "I just...met an old acquaintance."

"Oh really?" She sounded interested. "Who was it?"  
He opened his mouth to answer, then paused, considering. Finally he smiled gently at Barbara and took her hand, leading her out of the room. "No one you'd recognize," he replied at last.


End file.
